Isaac Lunest
Isaac Lunest was the Grand Archmage of the Wizard's Tower at the time the first roleplay began. Ironically, Isaac enforced relatively strict rules and led the most structured Tower to date, but practiced illegal magics himself. While he liked children, he did not bother to spend much time with them. The Old Tower Isaac spent many years becoming talented enough to become the Air Archmage. After the old Grand Archmage passed away, Isaac was elevated to that title, and temporarily took the position of Summoning Archmage as well, though he never taught any classes. When the Runespan was discovered, Isaac attempted to keep it a secret from the rest of the world, profiting from the nearly limitless supply of runes. However, he wasn't the only one to discover this dimension. Shortly after accepting a new group of students into the Tower, Isaac was attacked and almost killed in the Runespan by a group of warriors from the Zamorakian Magical Institute. On the same day, a field trip to the Water Altar went sour when a member of the ZMI overcharged the altar, destroying it and flooding Lumbridge with the ensuing tidal wave. Classes were put on hold as the wizards fought against the ZMI. The actions of the Tower were scrutinized by the Yanillian Synod, pressuring the wizards even more, as well as revealing the Runespan. Attacks on the Mind and Fire Altars were prevented under Isaac's supervision, but the rest of the battle would be waged by Isaac's successor, Saleh Dinh, as Isaac was kidnapped by the ZMI. After moving into the Grand Archmage room, Saleh discovered manuscripts about Isaac's brief investigations into chaos magic. The Journal of Isaac Lunest Entry 1: 5A Year 106 “Alright, this spot is good.” A crooked voice emerged from my robed companion as we reached a sufficiently dense part of the forest. He held a lantern in one hand, the yellow light melting into the low fog. As he drew the black hood away from his face, the light casted dark shadows against his grim face. I walked over to him, careful not to slip on the knobby roots stretching across the ground. They were still wet with recent rainfall. I created a soundproof barrier of air around us, the required energy surging from my staff. Esus, my somewhat creepy companion, pulled a pouch from his robes. He dropped the pouch, and it hit the wet roots with a muffled clang. A blue fire caught, burning away the pouch. The fire quickly grew, shooting up to eye-level. I backed away quickly, slipping on a root and falling. A deer emerged from the flames, and the blue inferno died out. The deer looked down at me with a piercing set of white eyes, its sickly, ethereal blue skin standing out against the orange-stained fog. I rose to my feet and brushed a hand along the deer. Its body took up space, and I could press my hand against it, but something about the deer seemed... Not there. I looked up to Esus with pure wonder, and he chuckled at me. “I didn't bring you out here to show you some simple summoning, Adept Lunest.” Esus spoke, turning his back to me. He always used my title to speak down to me, even though he himself held the same rank, albeit in enchanting rather than air magic. Esus pulled back some brush to reveal a cold, white face. It was a young man in wizard robes, his dead eyes staring at the treetops, or maybe the heavens. It was Johnny Galeh, a fire apprentice at the tower. My stomach turned. As much as I disliked the fire mages, Johnny was a nice, Saradominist man. To see his body disgraced like this was disgusting. My black robed friend pulled out another pouch. The pouch dropped onto Johnny's chest, and burned through his robes and flesh, into his heart. Johnny's eyes became white, and his skin flushed with the blue energy of undeath. “Hey John.” Esus whispered. Johnny's head turned to Esus limply, and a quiet moan escaped his lips as they came apart. I didn't know what this was, but it certainly wasn't revival. Entry 2: 5A Year 140 It has been nearly forty years since I last wrote. Were I an average man, the end of my life would be approaching, and I would be readying myself to meet Saradomin. But I relinquished my normalcy the day Esus taught me to raise the dead. Forty years ago I would be content to abide by Saradomin's law, but today I spit in the eyes of a god. I can make my own wisdom. Yesterday I traveled to the town of Rimmington and knocked on the door of a manor there. That was the second time I have stood upon that doorstep, and not a thing had changed from my first visit a month prior. A wizard opened the door, greeting me with the enthusiasm of a medic at the Duel Arena. His eyes were filled with an austere lack of hope, bags hung under them like the shadow of a moss giant. "Come in." The man muttered, speaking with a voice that had not been used since he had seen me last. His barren home had a few new faces in it- dead bodies. "How goes it?" I asked, looking at the new arrivals. They were all people, with families and livelihoods. But they fell to the will of something larger than them. Just pawns in a game of chess. The only way to win is to be the player. "You said you would bring me death runes." The wizard mumbled, walking back to the cabbage soup he had left out. "I returned from my last trip to find that Grimfringe had been executed." I said. There was no change in the wizard's expression. "Sorry Melzar. Perien found the corpse of an apprentice in Grimfringe's study. Had the old man's head cut right off." "Can you get me the runes?" Melzar asked. Typical of the wizard, he cared only for himself. he didn't care how I stood with the tower, or how I felt about Esus Grimfringe's death. "As the new air archmage," I announced. "I should be able to host a trip to the Wilderness to gather more. I can't be travelling with an unlicensed wizard, though. Say, there's an opening at the tower for enchanting..." "No. I'll find a way without the tower's help." Melzar declared. "You'll be here until the sixth age." I warned. Necromancy without death runes is preposterous. "Very well." And so, I write this on the road east. Recruiting Melzar was unsuccessful, so I have moved on to the next wizard on my list. An earth mage of the desert known as "The Sandstorm". Entry 3: 5A Year 154 Purple and blue energy crackled around us, the laws of the world bending for just a moment as we passed through the Abyss and appeared in Varrock. Saleh looked at me with affectionate concern. I have grown old, and the teleportation was more taxing to me than a young man such as the new earth archmage. Thirty years old and already the head of his school. I have decided Saleh will be the one to take my place when I come to pass. When we received the hurried report of an undead invasion, I was doubtful. But when we arrived on the northern wall and looked over at the dead lands of the Wilderness, it became impossible to deny. An entire coven of necromancers must have worked together to assemble that horde. An elemental barrage was released from the battlemages on the north wall. Flattening waves of undead. Chaos mages made their presence known amongst the horde, casting screaming balls of hellfire that crashed into the wall, tearing the cobblestones apart. The battlemages moved their battle to the ground, but continued to hold their line. The undead were destroyed before they could cross the Wilderness ditch. “Grand Archmage!” Saleh called. “Grand Archmage, they've dug into the sewers. I can feel them under the earth.” “Go into the city, make sure they don't slip past the guards.” I ordered, and Saleh took off with the speed of a young man. I, my old body unfit for running, opted for a more direct rout. I unleashed a surge of air magic from my staff, summoning a cyclone that drilled into the ground, throwing up dirt and rock, boring into the tunnels below. I walked into the pit, slowing my fall with air magic and landing gingerly on the cold paths of the sewer. It wasn't long before I discovered him, a figure robed from head to toe, commanding a few skeletons to mine out the wall. They were mining under the castle to steal the shield of Arrav from its vault. The figure looked over at me and drew back its hood, revealing something even more horrifying. It had no face, only bone. The figure raised a hand towards me, and all the blood in my body froze. It exerted a kind of pressure I had never felt before. The figure was about to end my life with the flick of a wrist, but he was stopped. A piece of the roof crumbled in, crushing him. Saleh dropped in and ran to me. “Are you alright?” The earth archmage asked. “Y..Yeah.” I muttered, my blood beginning to flow again. “But I think we should get out of here.” Entry 4: 5A Year 164 Over the past ten years, I have been around the world. From the peaks of kandarin to the ditches of Morytania, I have searched for power like that of the being I met in Varrock a decade ago. What I found was not immense power, however. It was infinite possibility. A world brimming with rune essence and magic energy for miles. The Runespan. At the average rune store's prices, the runes for a single fire wave cost about as much as an entire sheep. But using the Runespan, we have been able to sell runes for over ten times cheaper and still gain profit. The tower has flourished, all other magical competition has been flattened, and every kingdom in the world is using magic. Of course, this didn't bode well with my old friends in Yanille. The other day, I was in my study, examining a book. It was an old, beaten tome, its cover worn by years of sand steaking across it. A zarosian symbol could still be seen, just barely, against the worn camelhide. The script was all in an ancient language I learned to be zarosian. The language died out thousands of years ago, and I have yet to find out why. Maybe all the Zarosian people were killed in the God Wars? An apprentice came to my door. "Grand Archmage Lunest?" He asked, his voice faltering a bit as he tried to avoid my eyes. He was a young boy, a teenager, with tanned skin and brown hair. "There is someone here to see you." "I'm busy." I replied. I wasn't really busy, I had been staring at those ancient letters for the past few days. I simply did not want to deal with whatever the child had to say. "Sir, its Grand Archmage Amren of the Synod." The boy quivered. I put down my book and walked past him without a word. The Synod was never good news. They had tried to find the source of my success a couple times over the past few years, but always left empty handed. So this time the master of the Synod himself showed up at my door. The door of the tower was enchanted by Archmage Andrei (prior to hi banishment) to explode upon unauthorized entry into the tower. We also no longer had to rely on the Wizards' Guild's funding, so I had nothing forcing me to let Amren in. But I opened the door for the woman anyways. "Good morning, Archmage Lunest." The woman greeted me as she walked in. As my "superior", she wasn't to include the "Grand" part of my title. "Nice of you to visit, Anara." I said with a smirk. The greeting was completely disrespectful, and she gave me a dissaproving look. It is times like those where I truly feel all-powerful. "Show me where you make the runes." Anara ordered. I complied with a smile. "Right this way." I lead the fellow Grand Archmage up the circle staircase to the second floor. Saleh was there, with a bunch of students. If I still believed the gods to exist, then Saleh would certainly be a gift from them. He teaches the kids daily, leading trips to the Runespan and rune altars every week. What with Firzen being so lazy and Walter so stoic, if it weren't for Saleh there wouldn't be any actual teaching here. We walked up to the purple Runespan portal in the wall. "I'll need your staff." I said, stopping in front of the portal. "Magical items cannot be brought into the runecrafting area." This was a lie of course, and I still wore my air bracelet under the sleeve of my robes. A wooden bracelet with a small air orb as its centerpiece, the air bracelet served as an emergency backup when my staff was not available. "...Very well." Anara said, eyeing me suspiciously as she handed her expensive magic staff away to Saleh. I nodded at Saleh and entered the portal. Anara entered behind me. We were in the Runespan, dimension of infinite possibility. As soon as one enters, the side of the floating platform seems to pull you towards it. Floating above an endless void, its a dizzying feeling. Thankfully, only a few apprentices have fallen off. Anara looked around in wonder, plucking a piece of rune essence out of the air and examining the local esslings. "So this is how you've done it." She said, almost breathless. It was truly a magnificient sight. "Here, I'll show you the other islands." I said, walking over to one of the magical transport bridges. Anara follows me onto the pedestal. I placed a hand on her back, and she looked at me with poisonous eyes. I could not bear to look at the woman as I pushed her off the edge. She screamed and caught my ankle, pulling me off as well. I kicked at her fingers, and her hand came free. I fell faster than her, however, and she grabbed me as I fell past her. The woman began strangling me, so I reached out with one arm. My sleeve pulled away, revealing the air bracelet. I cast an air blast at the archmage, blasting her off into the void. I used all the rest of the energy in the bracelet to pull one of the smaller platforms down to me, landing on it. The platform floated back up to the others, and I returned to the tower. When I returned, I took Anara's staff for my own. It was an expensive staff made out of elemtal steel, so it was solid but did not conduct magic. Two blades extended from the top of the staff, and between them sat a sapphire. It was already stocked with air energy, and I have made it habit to store more inside daily. The public came to know that Anara Amren was killed by the mass murderer Solus Dellagar, and the Runespan continues to be my little secret. As for the book, I suppose I'll have to find someone who speaks Zarosian.